Academic Boredom and Cyberslacking During Lectures: A Correlational Study among Islamic Economics Students

Digital devices and internet access in lectures support learning but also allow students to engage in non-academic online activities. This behavior is known as cyberslacking, namely using the internet for personal purposes while learning activities are in progress. One psychological condition associated with this behavior is boredom, which is characterized by feelings of monotony, low engagement, and difficulty sustaining attention. This study examined the relationship between boredom and cyberslacking among students of the Islamic Economics Study Program, Faculty of Economics and Business, Universitas Syiah Kuala, Banda Aceh. A quantitative correlational design was employed with 227 students selected through simple random sampling. Data were collected using boredom and cyberslacking scales and analyzed with Spearman's rank correlation. The results showed a significant positive relationship between boredom and cyberslacking (rₛ = .953; p < .001). Thus, higher boredom was associated with a greater tendency to engage in cyberslacking, and vice versa. This very strong correlation indicates an exceptionally close covariation between the two scores and should therefore be interpreted cautiously, as it may partly reflect conceptual or operational proximity between the scales rather than showing that boredom and cyberslacking are the same construct.